Beneficial

That's the only way I can describe the freezers and pantry at the moment.

I've been really reducing my grocery shopping (the amount of stuff I buy, not necessarily money out) ... so we are pretty much dried up on the snacks and such.

I mean, shoot, the one shelf is normally stuffed with chips, breads, and other junk snacky types of foods. But since Sonny Boy hasn't been around, and all the boys with him (and girls) and Princes is working odd hours, we've pretty much cleaned out that shelf and just not bought any more ... which is ok because we ARE trying to eat healthier.

So when I got the text message from our friends that they had 10 'plump' b/s chicken thighs, and would we like to grill them up at our house and hang out for a bit, I had a slight anxiety attack.

What to serve for snacks? What to serve as a side. I mean, this is like an hour notice after a BUSY day. We said YES (of course) and hurried up to finish our projects in process (Hubby hanging Christmas lights and me cleaning up after the yard sale).

I had some baby carrots and celery in fridge. But NO ranch (how is that possible??). Skip that thought.

I have salsa, but no 'fresh' chips. Skip that one too.

Ahhh. Cheese. Sliced up 1/2 lb of sharp cheddar and a 1/2 lb of monterey jack. Laid them out on a tray and pulled out a sleeve of crackers, but decided against them as I'm not sure how fresh they were (didn't want to open them!).

Found a couple of half empty canisters of nuts and mixed them up in a dish (chocolate and peanut butter Emeralds nuts are AWESOME by the way!)

And, I made 2 boxes of scalloped taters. Would have made from scratch, but I was so tired ... and just didn't have the motivation to get everything out and slice it and such. Not a big deal normally, but that night it was.

I also had some ciabatti garlic bread in the freezer that was picked up a while ago in the freezer. So thankful that I haven't been adding bread to every meal lately!

You know what? It was an excellent meal. Great company, relaxed and tasty. I really think that if the pantry had been stuffed full and overflowing as it has been for the past several years, I would have had a lot more to choose from, but I would have lost a lot of time in deciding and then finding!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Smelly Shoe Fix!

Image
Honestly, we have real good hygiene habits in my house, I can assure you of that! But, lets face it, living in paradise with 125% humidity can be a little trying sometimes ... my running shoes (which have NOT seen much running action for quite a while) get a little ripe smelling ... and oh man, you should smell the shoes that Hubby wears outside in the yard, patio, garage and boat that constantly get wet ... enough to suck the oxygen right out of your body ... whew! Then you have the Boy ... who works out pretty darn hard and doesn't always wear socks, nor does the Princess ... I mean, seriously, I've had to throw shoes away because you could smell them just sitting there. No one wants to be the person that people are wrinkling their nose at when they are walking by you! So when I saw the featured post for the Smelly Shoe Solution (and dang, I'm still trying to find the original post because I had no need to bookmark it, such a simple fix!) Yes. That's IT!...
Read more

Non Toxic Mosquito Spray

Image
Let's face it, living in Paradise does have a few drawbacks with the #1 complaint being ... BUGS. Yeah, bugs.  Mostly mosquitoes that can just ruin an evening of relaxation on the patio ... those pesky little guys can really do a number on you quickly!  Heaven forbid if you are one of those who are very sensitive to the bites (the Boy), you will have welts in no time. So Hubby always decides to spray AFTER everyone starts swatting the air and scratching. We have to gather up our drinks and appetizers, go indoors and wait for 20 minutes or so for the toxic fog to flat away ... only to be swatting and scratching AGAIN in 30 minutes. After seeing THIS tip a few too many times, I figured, what the heck, $5 at Walmart is worth it to try, right? Guess what?  It seems to work!!!  I need to do a few more nights to say for certain but I say it's WAY better than that can of toxic stuff ... and cheaper to boot! You must use the ORIGINAL fl...
Read more

Rice Cooker - Hard Boiled Eggs

Image
One of the things I picked up at Costco was a new Rice Cooker. The one I have, well, I gave that to the Boy when he went away to college (so he could make his macaroni and cheese), not to mention, it was small as heck, like mini size! So, I figured, you know, Hubby likes to make rice occasionally. The Boy makes brown rice in the microwave every other day and leaves the bubbly residue behind for ME to find when I go to heat something up (I hate a dirty microwave, totally wigs me out and sends me running for the windex!) ... so I grabbed the rice cooker ($29.95), a 10 pound bag of organic brown rice and a 20 pound bag of Basmati rice. I'm asking myself now, a whole week later, what the hell am I going to do with 20 pounds of Basmati rice? Anyways. Then I was reading the recipe booklet that came along with the cooker. They had one recipe that said to add the eggs, unshelled, to the steamer basket.  Ok. That made me re-read it a few times. Unshelled? Did they mean out of the shell?...
Read more